Waste Isolation Pilot Plant WIPP

Transuranic Waste. Transuranic wastes (TRU) contain significant amounts (>3,700 Bq/g (100 nCi/g)) of plutonium. These wastes have accumulated from nuclear weapons production at sites such as Rocky Flats, Colorado. Experimental test of TRU disposal is planned for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The geologic medium is rock salt, which has the abiUty to flow under pressure around waste containers, thus sealing them from water. Studies center on the stabiUty of stmctures and effects of small amounts of water within the repository. 

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is in an excavated salt cavern in southern New Mexico, twenty-seven miles from Carlsbad. The WIPP site is 2,000 yards underground, and defense waste is being placed. There are plans to place there about 6 million cubic feet of material there containing fewer than five million curies of radio activity. 

Waste heat recovery exchangers, 13 267 Waste ink disposal, 14 333 Waste interception network, 20 739-740 Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), 25 859 Waste lime products, disposal of, 15 77-78 Waste management, 9 443... 

It is clear that the disposal of HLNW requires a high level of effective isolation for geological time-scales. In this context deep geological disposal has arisen as the most accepted option and there are already operational repositories of this type (waste isolation pilot plant, WIPP) in the USA, and in Finland and Sweden the plans are well advanced for the siting and construction of such facilities. 

The other three major activities within the waste isolation program are specific to particular sites. We are currently evaluating the potential of deep basalt flows below the Hanford reservation in the State of Washington. This work is managed by the Richland Operations Office and is being conducted by the Rockwell Hanford Company. An evaluation of a potential site is underway in southeast New Mexico for the location of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) which is primarily a facility for the placement of transuranium contaminated wastes (TRU) from the defense program. 

Dosch, R. G. and Lynch, A. W., Interaction of Radionuclide with Geomedia Associated with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (wiPP) Site in New Mexico, Sandia Laboratories,... 

Technical requirements on treatment and disposal of spent fuel, high-level waste, and transuranic waste established under AEA should be largely unaffected by the presence of waste classified as hazardous under RCRA Some of these wastes meet technology-based treatment standards for hazardous chemical waste established by EPA (e.gvitrified high-level waste is an acceptable waste form under RCRA). Alternatively, a finding that disposal of the radioactive component of the waste complies with applicable environmental standards established by EPA under AEA can serve to exempt the disposal facility from prohibitions on disposal of restricted hazardous chemical wastes under RCRA [e.g., disposal of mixed transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)]. 

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is only disposal facility authorized in law commercial transuranic waste also may be acceptable for near-surface disposal on a case-by-case basis. 

EPA (1996d). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Termination of review of Department of Energy petition to EPA for a no-migration determination for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 61 FR 60704 (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington). 

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) program as described in a later section. 

Performance assessment calculations of actinide speciation and solubility, and of the potential releases that could result if the repository is breached, were carried out as part of the CCA) for the waste isolation pilot plant (WIPP) (US DOE, 1996 US EPA, 1998a,b,c,d). The calculations modeled actinide behavior in a reference Salado brine and a less magnesium-rich brine from the Castile Formation as described previously (see Tables 6 and 8). The performance assessment calculations will be periodically repeated with updated parameter sets as part of site recertification. 

Kelly J. W., Aguilar R., and Papenguth H. W. (1999) Contribution of mineral-fragment type pseudo-colloids to the mobile actinide source term of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). In Actinide Speciation in High Ionic Strength Media (eds. D. T. Reed, S. B. Clark, and L. Rao). Kluwer/ Plenum, New York, pp. 227-237. 

Novak C. F., Nitsche H., Silber H. B., Roberts K., Torretto P. C., Prussin T., Becraft K., Carpenter S. A., Hobart D. E., and AlMahamid 1. (1996) Neptunium(V) and neptunium(Vl) solubilities in synthetic brines of interest to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Radiochim. Acta 74, 31-36. 

The most advanced projects are (i) at the abandoned Asse salt mine in Germany, wiiere drums with low and intermediate level activities have been deposited at 300 m depth in 1967-78 the repository is now used for research a final repository in salt at Gorleben is planned to be in operation be the year 2010, (ii) the waste isolation pilot plant (WIPP) at... 

Actually, the United States has demonstrated an ability to deal successfully with the long-term storage of nuclear wastes. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico has been receiving nuclear wastes since 1999 with no accidents in either transporting or storing the wastes. WIPP uses tunnels carved into the salt beds of an ancient ocean. Once a repository room becomes full, the salt will collapse around the waste, encapsulating it forever. 

At the seientifie level, generally the solution eonsidered more appropriate for the final disposal of high-level waste is the plaeement of it in adequate deep geologieal repositories. However, no solutions of this type have been implemented yet, exeept for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in 1999, located in New Mexieo (USA). 

HLW has yet been built. The only operating geological repository to date is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in the USA. In addition to WIPP, good progress has been made in several countries on repositories for HLW or spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. 

Public Law 104-201.1996. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997, Washington, DC. Sandia Laboratories. 1978. Geological Characterization Report Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Site, Southeastern New Mexico, SAND78-1596, Albuquerque, NM. 

In most natural waters actinides are usually coordinated with hydroxide and carbonate ligands however, waters from ancient salt formations that are proposed as disposal sites for nuclear waste, such as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico or the Gorleben site in Germany, are saturated with chloride salts. Chloride has been shown to affect the solubility and speciation of actinides significantly compared with their chemistry in inert electrolyte solutions ofsimilar ionic strengths. Radiolytic formation of hypochlorite in chloride brines may resnh in (he... 

Radionuclides contaminate large volumes of soils and groundwaters, primarily in the USA, Europe, and the nations of the former Soviet Union (see the chapter by Brady et al., 2002, this publication). To the extent that it is possible to do so, radionuclide-contaminated soils and groundwater plumes at U.S. DOE facilities will be removed and isolated for long-term storage, typically in low-level waste landfills. Higher level radioactive waste in the USA will probably be shipped to either the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)—a facility in southeastern New Mexico in-... 

Finally, more than 1 5 years after the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, it looks like some waste will soon be stored. In 1998 the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) In New Mexico was issued a license by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin receiving nuclear waste. This facility employs tun-... 

Abitz, R., Myers, J., Drez, P., and Deal, D. (1990). Geochemistry of SaladoFmmation Brines Recovered from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Repository. Proc. Symp. Waste Manag. (Waste Manag. 90), Albuquerque, NM2, 881—882. 

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